My wife and I both turned 66 in 2019. She started drawing benefits at 63, and I started drawing Spousal Benefits upon reaching FRA last year, intending to hold off until age 70 to draw my own benefits. According to this article in Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlange/2019/12/26/guide-to-beating-the-new-...), the suggestion is made that she can "temporarily stop receiving benefits [and] increase the value of [her] future benefits." Is that even possible under the new SSA rules? Can she do this while I continue to receive Spousal Benefits? This sounds a lot like the extinct File-and-Suspend strategy. Thanks!

Hi,

Yes, your wife could voluntarily suspend her benefits between now and age 70, but if she does so you couldn't be paid spousal benefits while her benefits are suspended. 'File and suspend' is not extinct, but most of the advantages to using that strategy were eliminated by the Social Security amendments passed in 2015 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/claiming.html?intcmp=AE-RET-PLRT-REL...). One of those changes was to suspend payments to auxiliary beneficiaries (e.g. spouse, child) if the worker on whose account they're drawing benefits voluntarily suspends their benefits.

Best, Jerry